The Geis Foundation, the philanthropic division of the American Dental Education Association, has presented the Gies Award for Vision and Leadership to Cecile A. Feldman, dean of the School of Dental Medicine at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
A Rutgers faculty member since 1988, Dr. Feldman has served as dean of the university’s dental school since 1999. Throughout her long tenure, she has advanced the school’s academic programming, infrastructure, and research capabilities. She oversaw the launch of the school’s Internationally Educated DMD program, which trains foreign dentists to practice in the United States. She has also guided the institution through several facility renovations, including a new clinical wing and an ongoing preclinc redesign.
In her own research, Dr. Feldman is involved with several clinical trials and studies. She is the principal investigator for a $11.5 million National Institutes of Health trial. The project aims to demonstrate the inferiority of a combination of over-the-counter analgesics as compared to the most prescribed opioid analgesic by dentists for the management of acute post-operative surgical pain. Another of Dr. Feldman’s ongoing trials focuses on the feasibility of COVID-19 diagnostic testing in dental offices, while a third project investigates the impact of HbA1c testing on high-risk patients reporting for dental appointments.
Dr. Feldman is a three-time graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in economics, a doctor of dental medicine degree, and an MBA in healthcare administration.